Open Your Eyes

On the drive from the coffee shop where I last updated to my driveway, I remembered some parts that I forgot to mention. (INTERNET AT HOME NOW BTW!!)

I've almost hit two different animals between yesterday and today with my car when they tried running out on the road in front of me. Both times, I saw them happening and was able to step on the brakes before anything happened and luckily nobody was behind me, but they were both very scary situations! What it got me wondering was if that was a sign to pay even closer attention to the things around me.

On the flight back from S Korea to LA, I watched Australia and wrote down some quotes that really stuck in my mind. One of them was from Nullah to "Mrs. Boss" when he said, "When Mrs. Boss first come here, she look but she don't see. Now she got her eyes open for first time."

I've been thinking that my eyes have been opening up more and more each day I'm here...I think my mind has been too. I keep saying there's something about this place that's almost magical and that it's hard not to believe in things when you are here, but that's so hard to show if it's not a firsthand experience. I was also thinking on the ride home that I should try taking a picture from a specific spot throughout the summer, but I don't want that to become a chore more than anything else.

So anyway, even though it was getting dark, I started looking closer on the drive home tonight. I saw my favorite herd of bucks in the island before High Drive (my street) and Moraine (the road that goes into the park) but then saw some other white butts that belonged to the White-Tailed deer. That made my mind go to earlier tonight when I got off the phone and watched that same herd in our front yard and a few deer on the side of our house.

I wonder if humanity can learn more by paying closer attention to animals. One might argue that they are segregating themselves because they are staying apart by species, but I think it's more of a learning to coexist and work together despite their differences. There is some sort of mutual understanding between the two that let them graze in the same areas without conflict.

Similarly, Kendall and I spotted three marmots out of our dining room window tonight but realized the closest one was actually a badger. The fact that those animals can be just a tree apart and not fight amazes me.

While I am observing the positive sides of coexistion? (I guess that is now a word), I can also draw to an animal interaction we watched from one of the office windows today. A dead golden-mantle squirrel was lying in the road out front and a magpie came to start eating it. We watched the beautiful black/white/blue-tipped bird peck at this creature who was fulfilling it's duty in the circle of life. Enter turkey vulture, stage left. This second bird swooped in, scared away the magpie, and flew to the grass by a crow to taunt its good fortune. The crow and turkey vulture got in a fight over the meat, and the magpie tried to sneak in a little more of its meal while avoiding the duel.

Maybe one of the questions in life is whether we want to be a graceful elk or a scavenging turkey vulture. Do we want to be able to get along with those around us with peaceful understandings and interactions or would we rather fight to be on top while destroying the possible relationships of those around us?